News Flash - 15 Firms Settle With SEC For Failed Breakpoints

Fifteen brokerages settled with the SEC and NASD for $21.5 million for not providing customers with $86 million worth of breakpoint discounts they were owed. The deal, struck earlier this month, also requires the firms to repay investors what they are owed.

The SEC studied breakpoint discounts last year and found that almost a third of the firms offering them were not following through. What ensued were an action against, and now a settlement with, the 15 firms, including Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers.